Heaptalk, Jakarta — Indonesia’s Association of District Governments (Apkasi) held Technical Guidance on Sectoral and Regional Development Policy Strategies Based on Sustainable Development and Disaster Response in Yogyakarta.
In this technical guidance activity, Apkasi collaborated with partners from the Down to Earth Economy Coalition (KEM), along with assistance in preparing Regional Planning Documents (dokrenda), which were carried out for two days on November 22 – 23 November 2023.
Traction Energy Asia supports this activity as a part of an advocacy working group in KEM, whereby the agenda becomes one of the follow-up efforts regarding the District Government from diverse areas in the archipelago to realize more sustainable development.
In the agenda, the Director Executive of Apkasi, Sarman Simanjorang, stated that his party continues to support the development efforts of around 416 Indonesia’s district governments. As is well known, the government has emphasized the principle of sustainability to realize the vision of a Golden Indonesia 2045, which has been integrated into the RPJPN 2025 – 2045. Hence, he noted that a sustainable regional development approach must be implemented to realize regional development goals.
“Sustainable regional development is relevant for achieving sustainable economic growth and environmental protection. Environmental crises such as climate change will impact the development of areas that depend on natural resources, including plantations, agriculture, and fisheries. For this reason, we encourage formulating policies that integrate sustainable development into the dokrenda.” affirmed Sarman.
This policy strategy can also encourage productivity and various nature-based innovations, grow investment in green infrastructure and renewable energy, and sustainable technological innovation that can create jobs and long-term economic growth.
“Sustainable development concepts or approaches must be integrated into the Long Term Regional Planning Documents (RPJPD) and medium term (RPJMD) as a basis for elected regional heads in implementing sustainability programs,” Sarman said.
Over 20 assisted districts participated in this activity, represented by the Regional Development Planning Agency (Bappeda) as the document drafting team. The process of preparing this document requires the proper strategy and accurate data. Traction Energy Asia identified around nine categories of obstacles generally encountered by the 52 assisted districts in the document preparation. The main three obstacles include the budget (22.9%), data (17.1%), and human resources limitedness (14.3%).
In response to the existing matters in arranging dokrenda, this technical guidance aims to provide assistance and information the regional representatives need. The details of this facilitation activity also include providing material from various experts and direct training.
Translated by Syifa
